Food truck program in the prep stage

The line at the K. Hill BBQ Company truck at Boardwalk on Bulverde last year.
JENNIFER WHITNEY / SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS-NEWS

Food trucks downtown? Why, yes. Thank you.

The city is making a concerted effort to bring food trucks downtown. A six-month pilot program is likely to begin in May, and would bring a cluster of trucks to Milam, Travis and Maverick parks.

“We’ve never done this downtown before,” said Mark Brodeur, director of the Center City Development Office.

The city is working out the details. For example, the hours. Food truck owners have told the city that it’s at night — like, when people are drinking — when they see the most profits.

“We are finding that while us folks at the city think we know the best hours, our food truck vendors are recommending alternative hours, when people want to actually eat at these things,” Brodeur said. “At night, mostly — they want to eat at lunch time and at night.”

And then there is the matter of location. Milam, Travis and Maverick parks don’t exactly scream high-traffic hotspot. But Brodeur said that’s the exactly the point.

“This is a placemaking opportunity,” Brodeur said. “This is an opportunity to enliven public spaces downtown that really don’t have the horsepower that the River Walk has. That’s why we didn’t pick a spot on the River Walk. It’s already an established place.”

Nighttime success, it seems, hinges on trucks’ proximity to where the action is. As any downtowner knows, eating options begin to dwindle around 11 p.m., and by midnight they are less than a handful. So wouldn’t you want to be smack dap in the middle to pick up the slack? The 24/7 Whataburger, after all, just opened and is centrally located. Then again, if you’re a resident of the Vistana, or a third shifter at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital, then Milam Park is a great location.

Brodeur calls it an attempt at creating “culinary islands.” But, he said, that doesn’t mean single designated spots couldn’t be made available around the hotspots, and during those late-night hours. I’ve always felt like Crockett or College streets — between St. Mary’s and Navarro — would be excellent destinations for one or two food trucks. Months ago, there was a truck selling chicken items on Presa Street — in front of Howl at the Moon — but it survived just two weekends.

“If that guy wanted to go back there and put a truck there, we would entertain that as a special location, and probably talk to the existing restaurants,” Brodeur said.

According to an Express-News article in October, City Manager Sheryl Sculley initiated the program. City code makes it difficult for food trucks to operate within 300 feet of a restaurant. And, it prohibits food trucks from operating downtown at all without a special permit from the downtown operations department. Click here to view the code (Chapter 13).

The restrictions loosen when a food truck is operating on private property, but it’s unclear whether it applies to private properties downtown. The guys with the bacon-wrapped hot dogs on Commerce and Navarro streets have an agreement with the parking lot owner to operate their cart there. But, in the city code, there is a distinction between mobile food vending (limited to raspas and hotdogs) and food trucks.